Hindawi Affair

The Hindawi Affair was an attempted bombing of an El Al flight from London to Tel Aviv in April 1986 and its international repercussions.

Overview

On the morning of April 17, 1986, at Heathrow Airport in London, Israeli security guards working for El Al airlines found semtex explosives in a bag of Anne Mary Murphy, a pregnant Irishwoman attempting to fly on a flight with 375 fellow passengers to Tel Aviv. In addition, a functioning calculator in the bag was found to be a timed triggering device. She was apparently unaware of the contents, and had been given the bag by her fiancé, Nezar Hindawi, a Jordanian. He had sent her on the flight for the purpose of meeting his parents before marriage. A manhunt ensued, resulting in Hindawi's arrest the following day after he surrendered to police. Hindawi was found guilty by a British court in the Old Bailey and received 45 years imprisonment, believed to be the longest determinate, or fixed, criminal sentence in British history [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1307628,00.html] (but see also life sentence).

Hindawi subsequently appealed the sentence of 45 years. His appeal was rejected by the Lord Chief Justice who noted that "Put briefly, this was about as foul and as horrible a crime as could possibly be imagined. It is no thanks to this applicant that his plot did not succeed in destroying 360 or 370 lives in the effort to promote one side of a political dispute by terrorism. In the judgment of this Court the sentence of 45 years' imprisonment was not a day too long. This application is refused."Fact|date=February 2008

Background

During Hindawi's subsequent interrogations and trial he described two conflicting stories leading up to the incident. In the first, Hindawi claimed to have arranged the plot with high-ranking officers in Syrian Air Force intelligence a year earlier in Damascus, where he was given Syrian papers and instructions for operating the explosives. He supposedly conducted a training run back in England before returning again to Syria for final details and preparation. As for the explosives themselves, Hindawi said that they were delivered to him in the Royal Garden Hotel in London on April 5, less than two weeks prior to the attempted bombing. This story is supported by the fact that Hindawi first sought refuge in the Syrian embassy after he had learned of the failed bombing, and Syrian officials were in the process of altering his appearance before he fled again, only to surrender to police. Also, British intelligence had previously intercepted Syrian communications with Hindawi's name, Hindawi was using genuine Syrian documents although he was not Syrian, and Hindawi's original escape plan involved leaving England with Syrian agents working on Syrian Arab Airlines.

The second story emerged during his trial, when he alleged that he was not working for the Syrians after all, but was being manipulated by Israeli intelligence, which wished to damage and embarrass the Syrian government. While the jury decided against this version of events, French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac later told "The Washington Times" that he thought it possible Israeli intelligence and anti-Assad Syrians could have been involved in the plot. [" [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50713F63B5E0C7B8CDDA80994DE484D81&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/B/Bombs%20and%20Explosives Chirac Remarks on El Al Plot Irk Israel] ." "The New York Times". November 8, 1986. p. 3] According to Gordon Thomas's book "Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad", Mossad agents took advantage of Hindawi's personal troubles with Anne Murphy, tricking him into carrying out a plot he believed was aimed against Israel, all the while planning for the discovery of the explosives before takeoff. Other possibilities have emerged that suggest that certain members of Syrian intelligence first named by Hindawi were Israeli spies themselves, allowing Israel to have prior knowledge of the plot Fact|date=February 2007.

Repercussions

After the court found Hindawi guilty, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher broke off diplomatic relations with Syria. Following this the United States and Canada recalled their ambassadors from Syria, though the American ambassador would return in September 1987. The European Community also imposed minor sanctions.

Aftermath

In April 2001 Nizar Hindawi became eligible for parole, but his right of appeal was denied by Home Secretary David Blunkett, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1307628,00.html] .

See also

* State-sponsored terrorism
* Arab-Israeli conflict

References

*Seale, Patrick. "Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East". Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988. ISBN 0-520-06976-5, 475-482 p.
*Black, Ian. Morris, Benny. "Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services". New York: Grove Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8021-1159-9, 433-437 p.
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1307628,00.html "El Al bomber too dangerous to release, court rules"] by Jenny Booth, Times Online
* [http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1064 "Terrorism: The Syrian Connection"] by Daniel Pipes, originally published in "The National Interest", Spring 1989.